Chapter 274 Treaty of Bucharest

After the debate, despite the strong opinions from the army, Constantine still received the order to occupy Alexandroupolis, considering the importance of occupying Alexandroupolis as soon as possible.

Constantine naturally understood that the naval commander Kontoriotis had his own thoughts in this move.

In recent years, the Greek Navy has spent about 220 million drachmas a year.

In contrast, the army's annual expenditure is about 360 million.

The navy's expenditure accounts for about 40% of the navy and army's expenditure, while the army's expenditure has reached 60%.

This data makes Kontoriotis, the commander of the navy, feel a crisis.

Because the proportion of the Greek navy's expenditure in the total expenditure is shrinking year by year.

In other words, the Greek government's support for the navy is slowly decreasing, and it is paying more and more attention to the army.

The Greek army has played an important role in all the wars in which Greece has participated, winning a large area of ​​territory for Greece.

In contrast, the record of the Greek Navy is much inferior. In all the wars, the Greek Navy has always played a secondary role and has never played a leading role.

So far, the most impressive achievement of the Greek Navy is that it defeated the Ottoman Navy in the last war and recovered many islands in the Aegean Sea.

Unlike the army, the construction of the navy is expensive and has a long construction period. The construction time of a warship is calculated in months, and the construction time of the main battleship is as long as one or two years, not to mention that the navy's crew has high technical requirements and needs to be trained for many years.

Before the war, the army can more easily increase its troops if the war situation requires it.

In other words, if the navy is not taken seriously in peacetime, it will be too late to cram when it is needed.

At present, Greece's annual fiscal revenue is about 1.4 billion, and the annual investment in military expenditure alone has reached 580 million. In peacetime, military expenditure accounts for 40% of Greece's fiscal revenue.

As for wartime, it is difficult to calculate. Victory is above all else. When fighting, the government naturally gives priority to meeting the needs of the army and tries every means to raise money for the army.

In fact, Greece's 40% funding is not high in Europe.

In the Balkans, where wars are frequent, the situation is unstable, and national sentiment is fanatical, the economies of Serbia and Bulgaria are in a mess. In order to maintain huge military expenses, almost all fiscal revenues are invested in military expenditures.

Military expenditures of major European countries are also high, and basic military expenditures account for 50% of fiscal revenue.

Seeing that the war is over now, Greece has completely established its position in the Balkans through this war. In the short term, Greece has no other war needs, so reducing high military expenditures will definitely be put on the government's work agenda.

Greece has participated in two consecutive wars within a year, and the huge consumption has almost made Prime Minister Venizelos collapse.

If there were no continuous news of victory from the front line to inspire people, I am afraid that the Greek government would now go bankrupt due to the depletion of funds.

The current government finances are completely a mess. The national debt has issued 700 million to 800 million drachmas. In order to maintain the expenditure of military funds, the government has completely stopped any unnecessary expenditures.

The Greek government's huge war hole is still unknown.

If the Greek navy fails to play a role, while the army has made great achievements, it is conceivable that the Greek government will naturally use the navy's funds to save military expenses.

The reason why Kontoriotis actively applied for the Greek navy to attack and let the navy take on the important task of occupying the capital of Western Thrace was to prove the importance of the navy to the government and remind the military and political leaders of the necessity of building a navy in Greece.

Without the navy, if Western Thrace cannot be occupied in time, what is the point of the army even if it has won an unprecedented victory?

According to the Russians' request, the negotiation site of the war was placed in Bucharest, the capital of Romania.

While escorting Prime Minister Venizelos to the Dardanelles, the navy took two thousand marines and landed in Alexandroupolis. After that, they encountered almost no effective resistance and successfully occupied the city.

All European powers sent special envoys to Bucharest to participate in the talks, while the prime ministers of the Balkan belligerents personally went to Romania to participate in the meeting.

At the meeting, Prime Minister Venizelos put forward Greece's request.

The demands are mainly divided into two aspects, territory and compensation.

In terms of territory, Greece requires Bulgaria to cede to Greece: Western Thrace, Eastern Macedonia, Pirin Macedonia, Eastern Rumelia and other provinces, about 80,000 square kilometers of territory.

In terms of compensation, Bulgaria pays Greece 1 billion drachmas in compensation. At the same time, for the captured Bulgarian soldiers, the Bulgarian government pays for the redemption and all expenses during the captivity, 300 drachmas for each soldier.

After Prime Minister Venizelos expressed the Greek government's demands, the representatives of Romania and Ottoman Turkey were not polite at all.

Romania demands to obtain the entire Dobruja from Bulgaria.

The Ottoman Empire demands to recover the territory of Eastern Thrace lost in the last war.

Edirne, the capital of Eastern Thrace, is of great significance to the Ottoman Empire and is a barrier to Constantinople.

Only Serbian Prime Minister Pašić felt a little jealous when he saw the three prime ministers in high spirits at the meeting.

Serbia was forced to fail to join the war due to the pressure of the Austro-Hungarian Empire's close military force.

In order to deter Serbia and make it give up the idea of ​​taking advantage of the opportunity to get a share of the spoils from the soon-to-be-defeated Bulgaria, Conrad, the Chief of Staff of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, directly ordered the Austro-Hungarian Empire's Second Army of 200,000 people to conduct a live-fire military exercise for half a month across the Danube near Belgrade, the capital of Serbia.

After the "evil deeds" of the Austro-Hungarian Empire spread in Serbia, the Serbian people, who were already dissatisfied with the Austro-Hungarian Empire, gnashed their teeth after witnessing the naked insults of the Austro-Hungarian Empire to Serbia.

Thinking of this, Prime Minister Pašić couldn't help but feel sorry for Serbia's missed opportunity for territorial expansion.

There was no chance to avenge the old grudge of Serbia's defeat by the Bulgarian army in 1885.

The territorial demands made by the three countries against Bulgaria caused an uproar after being reported back to Bulgaria, and even directly triggered unrest in the capital Sofia.

Citizens and students took to the streets, shouting slogans, demanding that the government not cede Bulgarian territory.

They even came to the embassies of major powers in Sofia and asked them to help Bulgaria.

The loss of money was secondary. The main thing was the territorial demands of the three countries. If all were met, Bulgaria would not only lose the territory it had gained after the last Balkan War, but also most of its old territory.

Bulgaria is located in the southeast of the Balkan Peninsula in Europe, bordering Romania to the north (the Danube River is the border), the Ottoman Empire to the southeast, Greece to the southwest, Serbia to the northwest, and the Black Sea to the east.

Eastern Bulgaria is adjacent to the Black Sea, and the Danube River is the boundary river between Bulgaria and Romania.

The Balkan Mountains run across central Bulgaria, like the backbone of the Bulgarian nation.

The Balkan Mountains divide Bulgaria into the Danube Plain in the north and the Thracian Lowlands in the south.

To the north of the Balkans is the vast Danube Plain, and to the south are the Rhodope Mountains and the Maritsa Valley Lowlands.

Other places are fine, but the main thing is that Greece's request for Eastern Rumelia directly ceded the territory south of the Balkan Mountains to Bulgaria. This piece of territory alone almost occupies half of Bulgaria's traditional territory.

The meeting was deadlocked on the issue of territorial cession.

The Greek diplomatic delegation headed by Venizelos was under tremendous diplomatic pressure.

The attitudes of the major European powers were also very clear, and they naturally did not want to see Greece dismember Bulgaria.

If Greece really got Eastern Rumelia, then Bulgaria would lose half of its citizens and territory, leaving only nearly 50,000 square kilometers of territory south of the Danube and north of the Balkan Mountains.

Then the consequence is that Greece will become the strongest country in the Balkans, and no other country can check and balance it. The situation in the entire Balkans will be one-sided towards Greece.

Of course, Venizelos also had his own reasons for asking Bulgaria to cede Eastern Rumelia.

Although most of the population of Eastern Rumelia is Bulgarian, there are also more than 100,000 Greeks living there.

After Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia merged in 1885, the Ottomans who originally lived here were directly expelled by Bulgaria and their property was looted.

The original Ottoman land was directly confiscated by the Bulgarian authorities, and the Greeks living there were also discriminated against and oppressed.

Due to the high nationalism in Bulgaria, Greeks were often expelled and looted under such circumstances.

All year round, Greeks from Eastern Rumelia were forced to leave their homes and go to Greece to make a living.

Now that Greece has defeated Bulgaria, the Greek people naturally hope to take back Eastern Rumelia and change the tragic fate of the Greeks there.

Due to special historical factors, the Balkan region has been ruled by multiple empires and kingdoms, resulting in people of different nationalities and religious beliefs living together, making the situation here very complicated, like a mess.

For the same piece of land, everyone can find solid historical evidence to prove its ownership.

The envoys of the major powers participating in the meeting had different attitudes towards Greece's request.

Among them, the Russian envoy hoped that the traditional settlements of the Bulgarians would be preserved. After all, the Bulgarians also belong to the Slavic nation. Russia's influence in the Balkans is mainly based on Pan-Slavism, and naturally they do not want to see the territory of the Slavic nation ceded.

Although Greece has a good relationship with Russia, Greece is still closer to Britain and France.

Among them, Germany and Austria-Hungary also obviously favor Bulgaria, especially the Greek request for Eastern Rumelia, and their attitude is very strong.

Not only did they disagree with Greece's request for Eastern Rumelia, but they also tried to persuade Prime Minister Venizelos to agree to the Greek army's withdrawal from Western Thrace.

As for Britain and France, they supported Greece's acquisition of part of the territory, but also disagreed with Greece's move to cede Eastern Rumelia.

Because all countries disagreed with Greece's request, especially Greece's proposal to obtain Eastern Rumelia, almost none of the countries participating in the meeting agreed with Greece's opinion.

After half a month of negotiations, Greece was forced to make concessions under strong pressure from various countries.

On July 28, 1913, the countries finally reached an agreement on the Treaty of Bucharest in Bucharest.

So far, the Second Balkan War ended with the victory of Greece, the Ottoman Empire, and Romania, and the defeat of Bulgaria.

The treaty stipulates:

First, Bulgaria admitted defeat to all countries and took the main responsibility for the war.

Second, ceded 50,000 square kilometers of territory including East Macedonia, Pirin Macedonia, and Western Thrace to Greece; ceded the entire Dobruja to Romania; and returned Eastern Thrace to the Ottoman Empire.

Third, Bulgaria paid 600 million drachmas in compensation to Greece.

Fourth, considering Bulgaria's financial difficulties, Greece released Bulgarian prisoners according to the progress of Bulgaria's payment of compensation. During the detention period, these Bulgarian soldiers will pay for their living expenses through unpaid labor.

Fifth, after the signing of the contract, the two countries officially ended the state of war, and the armies of both sides were not allowed to attack each other again.

Sixth, the Bulgarian government guaranteed to treat Greeks living in Bulgaria fairly and legally and to protect their personal safety.

After the contents agreed upon at the meeting were transmitted back to Athens, Constantine read it in detail. There were dozens of articles in the armistice treaty, but the core issues were just that.

Although Constantine had expected that the proposal to ask Bulgaria to cede Eastern Rumelia would not be successful before this, he still felt a little disappointed after knowing that it was rejected.

Under the current situation in Europe, without obvious changes, it would be difficult for Greece to expand to the surrounding areas.

Otherwise, it would be like this Bucharest Conference, and the major powers would tacitly join forces to suppress it.

However, it is gratifying that through the two Balkan Wars, Greece almost completely obtained the entire Macedonia region, and the territory of Greece expanded by nearly one-fold!

After the data sorting of the General Staff, the casualties of the Greek army in this war have been sorted out.

The Greek army suffered 68,000 casualties, including 32,000 Congolese native black soldiers and 36,000 Greek native soldiers.

As for Bulgaria, due to the strong attack on the Greek army's tightly defended defense line, the casualties were relatively large, with 120,000 casualties and 160,000 prisoners.

After this battle, the Bulgarian army was severely damaged by the Greek army, and more than 500,000 troops were annihilated by the Greek army.